Hello All,
This is indeed earth shaking news for U.S. beekeepers! The finding of varroa
would not change things for U.S. beekeepers as we have got those and are
surprised Australia is still varroa free.

A finding of Tropilaelaps clareae in Australia ( has not happened yet and
only doing a "what if" ) would in are probability close the U.S. border to
Australian queens & packages.

Our industry has come to depend on those packages & QUEENS. My beekeeping
partner called around 10-15 queen producers Friday and finally found a small
order of queens available in Alabama. The same thing happened last year and
the only place we could find queens was out of Australia.  We took a 500
queen order and they were gone within hours.

 The entrance into the U.S. of cerana would not upset * knowledgeable*
beekeepers (myself)  as a cerana import has been discussed before and by me
on this list. However the subject has not came up in years (until now?).

Cerana does not have problems with the varroa mite. The reason is that
varroa for the most part (rare times have been reported by Anderson but only
in a few worker cells) does not reproduce in cerana worker brood. In China I
would guess a million cerana colonies are used for honey production. Also in
some areas cerana strains are about the same size as mellifera. With
selective breeding very productive cerana have been created in China (source
the last China beekeepers tour).

cerana and mellifera will not mate and cross . Cerana WILL NOT cross with
AHB. Cerana can be kept in areas of AHB without fear of problems. Cerana
needs no treatement for varroa as varroa numbers drop rapidly when the
colony goes into a period of raising no drones.

I have been shouted down every time I have pointed out the possible benefits
from a cerana import.

First I think brought up by me over twenty years ago.

 Friends say the beekeeping industry drives a model  T and has trouble when
they climb into corvette power.

I have got a LS6 corvette engine in a restored 25 year old beekeeping
flatbed. The truck came from a beekeeper in California (he bought new) and
has no rust. I pulled his small engine (tired from years of faithful
beekeeping service) and I installed the high compression piston ,not stock
engine with 470 cu.in. , I bought from an auto repair shop. Bob going
through a second child hood?

I did all the work (including the interior) but the paint ( i prepared the
truck for paint). Maaco did the paint. I use the truck in tough places so
did not figure I needed a better paint job but Maaco did a nice job and the
paint will soon be two years old. Paint has a few scratches from tall weeds.

I talk to Australia by phone at least once a month so will try to keep
updated on what kim posted and report. Maybe Trevor will keep us updated
also.


bob



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